"Your hands made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments." Psalm 119:73 (NASB)

Have you ever longed for a better understanding of the word of God that you may obey His commandments? The Apostle Peter calls on you, the believer, "to long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation" (1 Peter 2:2).

As Christians, we all desire to grow through learning more about God and obeying Him. However, we know that for us to learn and obey God's commands, we need first to understand what His word means before we can apply it to our lives. When you can't figure out what God is instructing you to do in His word, what should you do?

The writer of this Psalm gives us the solution in this verse. Firstly, the psalmist points us to the One who made us, "Your hands made me and fashioned me" he says. Here the psalmist acknowledged both God's past creative power and His present keeping power at work in his life. Ultimately, he knew that God was the only One who could help him. When you lack understanding who better to go to than the One who made you and presently preserves you?

Secondly, the psalmist recognized that God alone could have opened His mind to learn His commands. The Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16-17). And it is God who commanded the psalmist to obey it (Deut. 28:1-2). Therefore, only God could give Him understanding (Ezek. 36:27; 2 Timothy 2:7). The Bible is God's word, and He knows what it means because He revealed it. When you lack understanding, you need to seek it from the One who made you. And the Lord by His Spirit will give you understanding. 

"When you lack understanding who better to go to than the One who made you and presently preserves you?"

Our Lord Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit at a very young age, amazed those who heard Him by His understanding of Scripture (Luke 2:47). We know that it is because of Him that we now know God and can understand what He has done for us in His Son (1 John 5:20). Like the psalmist we too can pray with confidence "give me understanding that I may learn Your commandments" knowing that our God who hears, will answer. 

As Sam Storms wrote "If God does not act to unveil and illuminate the meaning of his Word we shall forever remain in darkness."

"Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your Law" (Psalm 119:18). May these verses and verses like them be your constant prayer as you study the word of God.

Pastor Akel Bowrin